Neighbors express concerns about animal safety at Zootastic

IREDELL COUNTY, N.C. — A family-owned zoo that has faced trouble in the past is receiving new criticism from its neighbors.

Those neighbors say they walked outside and found a zoo animal dead in their backyard.

They said they are concerned about how the park’s animals are treated and are worried someone could get hurt if an animal escapes again.

Scotty Hedrick showed Channel 9′s Dave Faherty where he found the dead dear behind his grandmother, Ruth Warren, house near Troutman.

He said that when he called the county for help, a worker from Zootastic Park showed up instead.

“He comes back here and says that’s ours. That’s the fallow deer that got loose the other day, and we darted it, and it ran off, and we couldn’t find it,” Hedrick explained.

“We had it cornered, and then it got gone. And we didn’t catch it, and we wondered what happened to it,” Warren said.

Hedrick said the worker got equipment from the park and removed the deer from his Warren yard, which is about half a mile from Zootastic.

However, the USDA inspected the park twice this year and didn’t find any violations.

In 2023, it listed concerns over sanitation, the handling of animals, and enclosures used to transport animals.

The owner of the park, Scottie Brown, sent a statement to Channel 9 regarding the incident, saying:

“We did not dart a deer. We did have a deer that escaped during a storm when a tree fell on our fence. We tried to dart it for two or three days, and then a neighbor found a dead deer with a broken leg that looked like it was hit by a car.”

Hedrick said he just hoped no more animals would get out.

“If you’re going to have animals, you need to take care of them. These are exotic animals; I mean, they can get out and hurt somebody,” Hedrick elaborated.

The owner also said when they tranquilize a $3,000 animal, they’re going to look for it because it takes only five minutes for it to go down.

The Zootastic land and operation are currently for sale. It went on the market in April.

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